Best Security Awareness Training Programs 2023

As cybercrime continues to increase, so does the need for high-quality Security Awareness Training (SAT) solutions. Sadly, phishing scams, eavesdropping, the accidental download of viruses, data breaches, and financial loss at the hands of hackers are all too common. Security awareness training programs are more important than ever.

You could be affected, no matter how small or big your business is. Luckily, Security Awareness Training solutions provide an excellent solution.

Offering your business protection from cyber-attacks, SAT involves training employees and business owners on how to recognize and report suspicious activity. They also train individuals how to be more security-conscious.

That’s not all they offer, though. These services also allow admins to test employees, create campaigns, and ensure users engage with learning materials. Analytics and team data are also available.

Today, we want to help you find the best SAT solutions for your business. Therefore, we’ve compiled a list of the best in this article. We’ll show you what each service offers and look at any pros and cons.

ESET Cybersecurity Awareness Training

We’ll start our list with ESET’s cybersecurity awareness training. ESET is one of the best cybersecurity providers online for many reasons, one being that they provide support to users worldwide.

Doing all they can to encourage safe and super secure use of technology, ESET has many innovative internet security solutions that your business can make good use of. Successfully changing online behaviours, ESET uses proven gamification methods to engage learners in learning.

Online training is detailed and easily digestible, making it much easier for your employees to learn positive behaviors. Following the simple module-based training program, users will cover an array of important topics such as threat overviews, email protection, preventative measures, and password safety.

Extremely simple to use and easily monitored, your employees will know everything they need in 90 minutes.

When we reviewed this SAT, we were pleased with the overall package and how easily it can be integrated into different operating systems like Office 365. We’d recommend this SAT for any size of business.

Pros:

• Certification provided – Certification is provided for compliance and insurance.
• Simple interface – Individuals with basic IT knowledge can easily navigate their training.
• Feature-packed – ESET’s training course is packed with useful and important features.

Cons:

• No 24/7 support – ESET doesn’t offer 24/7 support.

TitanHq – SafeTitan

Next, we have SafeTitan. Delivered by TitanHQ, this Security Awareness Training solution is a market leader in internet security. This is a fantastic option if you’re looking for high-quality, reliable training resources for your employees.

The SafeTitan training program is a solution that focuses heavily on behavior. TitanHQ uses gamification methods alongside essential SAT materials to get the most important points across.

While TitanHq provides plenty of resources to help improve employee knowledge around various topics, one of the best features SafeTitan comes with is its phishing simulations. Fully customizable to suit your business, these simulations can be used to unexpectedly test your staff to see if they have learned how to deal with various cyber-attack scenarios. There are thousands of templates to choose from.

Integrating TitanHq’s system with Microsoft software is easy, as is navigating your way around the training material.

To ensure your employees learn plenty without being overloaded, SafeTitan keeps training short and sweet. Each piece of training is given in ten-minute sections and includes engaging, entertaining videos.

Pros:

• Phishing simulations included – Test your employees.
• Easy-to-follow – Training is limited to 10-minute videos.
• Perfect for everyone – Any business can use SafeTitan.

Cons:

• Fallout – Staff, might not appreciate being put through phishing tests by their employer.

Infosec

Offering security solutions that suit business teams, government and contractor teams, and MSPs and resellers, Infosec is a reliable company that prides itself on motivating and educating virtually anyone to work online safely.

Infosec provides users with boot camps and training courses to develop knowledge regarding cyber-attacks, phishing, password protection, and email protection. Infosec also offers phishing simulations like TitanHq.

Infosec delivers training on Infosec IQ, an easy-to-use training platform containing absolutely everything you need. It is also available for remote training that employees can do in their own time.

While Infosec’s quality of training is impressive, the thing we found most amazing was the number of resources available. Infosec has more than 700 different courses to choose from.

Within all of these 700 courses, you’ll find microlearning videos, posters, assessments, interactive modules, a library full of content, and customizable resources that allow you to tailor the training to your employee’s needs.

You can then monitor the progress of your employers using Infosec’s measurement tools.

Pros:

• Impressive variety – Infosec has over 700 courses to choose from.
• Assessments included – Test employee knowledge.
• Easily tailored – Customized training can be curated to suit your business’s needs.

Cons:

• No free trial – You can’t trial the solutions first.

Barracuda PhishLine

Helping to prevent over 20,000 email attacks daily, Barracuda and its PhishLine solutions work hard to provide comprehensive resources and support that increase the knowledge of those who work online.

Barracuda offers security training and continuous simulation to protect its users from social engineering attacks. This allows employers to develop their workforce’s behaviors towards suspicious activity before putting them to the test.

Arguably the biggest selling point this Security Awareness Training solution has is its customizability. Fully customizable, you can tailor each training course to suit your business, making the training more real for your employees.

Barracuda PhishLine is a great option for businesses looking to implement email protection and effective training solutions.

Heavily focused on data analytics, Barracuda’s Total Email Protection platform will monitor employee behavior and secure your emails. Employees can click a simple ‘report phish’ button to notify IT admins of potential phishing attacks.

We love how Barracuda also provides businesses insights into which employees are most vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

Pros:

• Security provided – Barracuda PhishLine will secure your emails.
• Detailed analytics – Monitor employee behavior easily.
• Customizable – Customize your employee’s experience.

Cons:

• Confusing interface – Those with less IT experience may struggle with the powerful interface.

Hook Security – Hook PsySec Security Awareness Training

Hook Security could have exactly what you’re looking for if you’re in the market for an innovative, highly effective Security Awareness Training solution for your business and its employees.

Providing organizations with everything they need to train their employees to actively recognize and respond appropriately to cyber-attacks, Hook Securities Hook PsySec training solutions deliver engaging content that will specifically train the part of your employee’s mind that activates threat responses.

To do this, Hook Security provides detailed content that is fun and repetitive. The training also provides owners and administrators with reporting tools and phishing simulations to track and monitor security improvements.

The PsySec training consists of two courses. These courses are PsySec Essentials and PsySec Deep Dives.

The essential course runs annually through various topics, including password protection, remote working securely, and phishing. The Deep-Dives course is delivered twice a year and takes a more in-depth look at real-life scenarios.

Super user-friendly, Hook PsySec can also be customized to fit the requirements of your organization.

Pros:

• Powerful automation – Simulations are reliable and well-thought-out.
• Two courses available – There are two great courses to choose from.
• Detailed – Courses look at a wide range of topics.

Cons:

• Only two Deep-Dives courses – The Deep-Dives course is only delivered twice a year.

Proofpoint

Next on our list is Proofpoint. When it comes to email security, Proofpoint is one of, if not the best, services found online.

Working around the clock to protect over 100 million email accounts worldwide, Proofpoint is the best service to use if you want effective training resources for your employees and solid email protection services.

Once owned by Wombat Security, Proofpoint’s training program provides organizations with a personalized training program that aims to increase knowledge and improve threat intelligence.

Those taking part in the training course Proofpoint offers can expect an interactive training experience that includes phishing reports, analysis, various materials, and videos. The platform also offers simulated threat campaigns.

Consisting of many useful modules and an ever-growing content library, users will find everything the training course offers in one easy-to-use, simple-to-navigate interface that effortlessly integrates with most operating systems.

We appreciate how each module is only 15 minutes long and comes available in 35 languages. This makes the platform more accessible and allows the user’s to learn more when they don’t have much time.

Pros:

• 700 phishing templates – Test your employees using one of the many templates.
• Email protection included – Train employees and keep your emails secure.
• Great interface – Proofpoint’s interface is super simple to use.

Cons:

• No free trial – A free trial would be a nice touch.

Phished

Phished is an award-winning cybersecurity awareness training platform that combines interactive education and threat intelligence with automated phishing simulations.

By combining these three things, Phished has already successfully minimized the risks of phishing attacks by up to 96%. They’ve done all of that without any manual intervention.

Driven by AI technology, the training content offered at the Phished Academy aims to provide users with the knowledge and know-how to recognize threats and deal with them appropriately. Your employees will learn how to deal with CEO fraud, SMiShing, and phishing attacks, to name just a few.

Aside from high-quality training resources, Phished also provides robust reporting features that give your admin team better insight into your business’s security.

All of this is accessed via Phished’s innovative and surprisingly powerful dashboard. This dashboard allows you to monitor progress, commence simulation campaigns, and customize your employee’s experience.

When we took a closer look at Phished, we found the ‘report phish’ button to be a neat touch. This gives employees more responsibility and takes pressure away from admin teams.

Pros:

• Variety of useful tools – There are plenty of powerful tools to make the most of.
• Intuitive dashboard – The Phished dashboard is amazing.
• Mobile app available – Phished has an app you can download.

Cons:

• Limited training content – This SAT doesn’t have as much content as others.

Ironscales

Aside from offering a wide range of tools to help develop and improve individuals’ ability to detect online threats, Ironscales is a platform that gives businesses the protection they need to secure their emails. This includes protection against spear-phishing and email account compromise.

Ironscales scans all your business emails to identify any weaknesses or potential attacks.

Regarding the Ironscales training program, the organization does a great job demonstrating real-life examples. This helps develop knowledge in regards to easily identifying and dealing with attacks.

The Ironscales Threat Assessment course provides plenty of training resources and simulations to help you build a more powerful workforce.

One of the best things about the services on offer is the risk assessment scores given to each user. After a phishing template has been sent out, of which there are hundreds, you’ll be given a score that shows how each employee reacted. From there, you can offer more support to those who need it.

Easy to install and navigate, your team will learn and develop a great deal from using Ironscales.

Pros:

• Easily integrated – Ironscales works with most operating systems, including Office 365.
• Real-life examples – User knowledge is developed using real-life examples.
• ‘Report Phish’ button – This allows users to report suspicious activity.

Cons:

• Less training content – Other platforms provide more learning content.

CoFense

Businesses looking to highlight the threats their business faces and show employees how to deal with them should take a close look at CoFense.

CoFense provides an awareness training platform that small and big organizations can use to educate employees on the specific online threats their company faces daily. This includes phishing and email scams.

The training course CoFense delivers is called PhishMe. Primarily focused on phishing simulation, which helps to teach your employees what to look for and how to deal with different scenarios, this program also develops general knowledge regarding phishing and the threat it carries.

Customized to suit varying members of staff and those who may be more vulnerable to cyber-attacks, the educational materials provided are simple to follow yet extremely effective.

Thanks to the streamlined service, administrators and business owners can easily set a list of campaigns to run throughout the year.

As if that wasn’t enough, CoFense also offers CoFense Security Awareness LMS. This consists of short modules and training materials that again improve knowledge and even show user’s how to report a cyber-attack.

Pros:

• Content-rich – There is plenty of content to get stuck into.
• Business-specific – Training is customized to your needs.
• Effective – Training will reduce the risks to your business.

Cons:

• Weak integrations – CoFense isn’t easily integrated with other technologies.

KnowBe4

The final Security Awareness Training solution on this list is KnowBe4. KnowBe4 is an excellent choice if you aren’t sure where to start when trying to put a security program together for your employees.

With over 30,000 customers worldwide, you’ll join a reliable training program packed with useful tools, content, and features that improve and develop understanding and put what’s been learned into practice.

Apart from a huge library of content that looks at some of the most important things regarding phishing, KnowBe4 has a wide range of presentations, quizzes, and videos.

The company also offers professional phishing simulations so you can monitor your employee’s performance and arrange any further training.

KnowBe4 is the fastest-growing security awareness training solution and has already won multiple awards for the services they provide. With over 1,000 different learning materials to look at and learn from, it’s not hard to see why.

Pros:

• Reliable – Over 30,000 businesses already use KnowBe4.
• Huge content library – There are over 1,000 different training materials available.
• Easy solution – Save time with this hassle-free, straightforward solution.

Cons:

• Poor campaign configuration – Configuring campaigns and simulations could be easier.

Security Awareness Training Buyer’s Guide

Before rushing into a decision, there are many important things to consider. In this buyer’s guide, you’ll find the most important security awareness training factors to consider to help you make a better decision.

Please follow each point we make if you want to avoid buyer’s regret.

Course Details

It is important to find out what each training solution offers before making your final decision. The last thing you want to do is pay for a training program that doesn’t focus on the key things affecting your business.

With this in mind, you should look closely at what the course offers before purchasing. You should look at each module and how they can help your business.

For example, if you need employees to learn about email protection, look for a course with email protection modules.

Phishing Simulations

We strongly recommend looking for a SAT that offers phishing simulations. The reason for this is pretty simple. By running phishing simulations, you can track and monitor the performance of your employees, discovering how they react to certain situations.

Things get even better if you purchase a program that has multiple templates. The more templates provided, the more campaigns you can run.

Integration

It is also important to purchase a Security Awareness Training solution that can easily integrate your systems. Solutions that can’t be integrated with your systems simply won’t work.

Generally speaking, most solutions work with no problems with most systems. However, others might only work with Office 365.

To ensure you pay for a service that works, check the solutions website first.

Extra Features

Extra features are always appreciated, so keep your eyes peeled. Features like a ‘report phish’ button, quizzes, and print-off posters are all things that can enhance user experience, protect your business more effectively, and improve the knowledge of your staff.

Amount of Content

If your employees get the most out of their training, they need access to a wide range of training materials. While most training courses come with plenty of training materials, others don’t quite live up to the hype.

In our opinion, no amount of training resources is enough. The more we have, the better. Therefore, we’d recommend choosing a program with the most content. That said, that content would still need to be high quality.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Thoughts

Using Security Awareness Training solutions is a sure-fire way to ensure everyone within your business is vigilant regarding cybersecurity and cyber-attacks. With cyber-attacks continuing to grow, this is becoming more and more important.

Luckily, you now have all you need to integrate a reliable, high-quality training course into your business.

In this article, we’ve shown you 10 of the best SATs you can find online. While they may all differ slightly in terms of what they offer, they are guaranteed to develop your employees’ knowledge and help monitor any attacks.

Now, with our list and buyer’s guide at your fingertips, narrow your options down until you can identify the Security Awareness Training solution that suits your business best.